


Itero

by Kinglivv



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s10e12 The Doctor Falls, F/F, F/M, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27882501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinglivv/pseuds/Kinglivv
Summary: The Doctor goes back in time to the colony ship in an attempt to save Missy. If she saves Missy, she saves Gallifrey. It's simple.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Missy, Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan), Twelfth Doctor/Missy
Kudos: 34





	Itero

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr - @kinglivv  
> I'm way more active on tumblr, and I have dozen more fics on there, so come say hi :)

She had learned a lot on Gallifrey.

Not just about herself, but also the Master.

The Master, her friend who had been so close to redemption yet had promptly turned around and destroyed their home planet. She had tried everything to stop him, but none of hit had worked.

This was her last option.

A Mondasian colony ship, cerca the year 3000, parked next to a blackhole and filled with thousands of Cybermen. The Doctor had been here once before and, granted, it probably wasn't the smartest of moves to return. Then again, she had never been one for taking the safe option. The first time she was here, she'd stayed for approximately two weeks before making a swift exit. She had left something behind though, something that if saved, could prevent the destruction of Gallifrey.

She knew that she wasn't only risking being converted, but was also risking a paradox.

Whatever. She'd patch it up if it came to that. 

She sets the exact coordinates and time and when she steps out of the TARDIS, she expects to find Missy standing at the doors to the lift with her former self, ready to hop into his TARDIS and set course for the stars.

Instead she find her lying in the dead, cold leaves.

“Missy?” The Doctor calls out, beginning to run when she sees the purple figure lying still on the ground. “Mis?”

She drops to her knees next to Missy’s form, that all too familiar anxiety forming in her chest. No. This wasn’t meant to happen.  
Desperately, she pulls Missy’s head into her lap, cradling her body as she frantically searches for any signs of life. This couldn’t be the end of the Master, surely. She had seen the future – she was the future.

At last, the blue eyes flutter open slightly, albeit they look tired and unfocused. The Doctor wonders if Missy has even registered that she is here.

“Missy, love, can you hear me?”

“Theta?” Missy mumbles drowsily. The Doctor’s hearts stutter at the word – Missy must really be out of it if she’s using such an ancient name. “You’re blonde again.”

“Yeah,” The Doctor replies. “Also a woman – thought I’d take a page out of your book.”

Missy hums. “Did one of those cybermen get you then? Told you you put number thirteen off for too long.”

The Doctor’s smile falters. She couldn’t tell Missy how far in the future she was from. Maybe if she let her live in the fantasy that she had only just regenerated, right here on this ship, she might be able to keep her talking a bit longer.

“Do you think you can move, darling?” She tries to shift slightly, as if to prompt her to get up. Instead Missy tenses and gasps.

“I think-“ She sucks in a breath. “I think that might be rather difficult, dear.”

“What happened to you? Was it a Cyberman?”

“Quite the opposite dear,” Missy says breathlessly. “I tried to get back to you but he- he got me with his laser screwdriver.”

The Doctor stares down at her.

“You mean you... tried to come back to me?”

“Of course I did – I took your hand, you felt the knife in my sleeve.”

It’s then that the Doctor sees the tiny, but sharp knife glinting in the pale light, half buried in the shrubbery surrounding them.

“But I thought you…” The Doctor frowns, her thoughts suddenly muddled. None of this made sense. If Missy had tried to come back, if Missy really was good, then how had she become the Master she knew now?

There’s the distant sound of a Cyberman walking by, the clanging of metal unmistakeable.

“You need to go,” Missy instructs her, her pale eyes looking even more distant than before.

“We, Missy. We need to go. Come on – this new body might be tiny but I’m fairly sure I can still lift you.”

“No,” Missy gasps. “Not today, not this time.”

“What?”

“Laser screwdriver, remember? I can’t regenerate,” She tells the Doctor softly, watching her face fall as the truth of the matter sets in. “This is the end of the line for me, I’m afraid. But not for you.”

The Doctor stares down at her best friend, dying in her arms.

“No, Missy I-“

“I’m not getting out of this one,” Missy cuts her off, sounding very clear and matter of fact despite the state she was in. “Funny this – I’d always pictured us dying together at some point, probably by accident. Or because of the Daleks. Turns out I’d much prefer this. I like the idea of you still playing the bloody hero, looking after the universe while I’m gone.”

“Missy, you have to regenerate,”

This wasn’t a plea, merely a fact. How could the Master she knew exist if Missy dies here?

“You need to go!” Missy’s voice was hoarse but still held the same authority and menace that it always had. “I’m going to die Doctor, you can’t be here. You can still get out of this. Go back to the observation deck, find your TARDIS, leave!”

The Doctor hates this, lying to Missy while cradling her in her arms as she dies. Her mind desperately trying to catch up with all these questions. She’s created some sort of paradox and if she stayed any longer, she would ruin the chain of events. Somehow, her being here results in Missy dying. Somehow, her not being here results in Missy living, but then becoming the Master again. There’s no right answer.

“Doctor,” Missy pleads, her voice softer and weaker now. “Go.”

The Doctor knows she needs to leave. It wasn’t worth risking Missy dying, just to save Gallifrey. It’s strange that – Missy and The Master were very much the same being, but the Doctor viewed them as almost completely different people. As far she was concerned they were different people and she wasn’t prepared to let Missy die in order to prevent the crimes the Master commits.

The Doctor bursts into tears.

As Missy’s eyes fall closed and her breathing becomes even more shallow, the Doctor, for the first time in this body, properly allows tears to run down her cheeks and for sobs to rack her body. Her grief for Missy finally overwhelms her and she cries all the tears she should have cried two years ago, the first time she was on this ship.

She can’t win, she really can’t win, and it wasn’t fair.

She softly lays Missy down in the ground, the Timelady’s face pale but peaceful. She’s still breathing, thank Rassilon, and the Doctor stands, wiping at her tears. She needs to leave before she makes an even bigger mess of this than she already had.

She turns away, and slowly picks her way through the shrubbery. She had came to fix one of her biggest mistakes, but had left an even bigger hole than before.

When she gets back to her TARDIS, she cries and cries and cries.


End file.
